John Fanta
College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter
The University of Michigan has hired Dusty May as its next men’s basketball coach, the school announced Sunday.
Michigan and May agreed to a five-year contract with an average value of $3.75 million annually.
“The University of Michigan is among the elite institutions in the world and it is both an honor and privilege to be named its head men’s basketball coach,” May said in a statement.” … This was an incredibly difficult decision, however, I am deeply committed to reigniting the proud tradition of Michigan Basketball. I can’t wait to get started.”
After discussions between the Wolverines and the now former Florida Atlantic head coach progressed in the last 24 hours, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel and his circle made the decision to go with the hottest coaching name from last year’s NCAA Tournament.
May, 47, led FAU to the school’s first Final Four last year, as the Owls emerged as a 9-seed in the East Region and went 35-4 on the season to make it all the way to Houston.
With a move from Conference USA to the American Athletic Conference this year, FAU had a firm target on its back and still went 25-9 with victories over Arizona, Texas A&M, Butler and Virginia Tech, among others, in a challenging non-conference schedule.
May, a former Bob Knight manager and Indiana alum, will head to Ann Arbor after Michigan fired Juwan Howard following an 8-24 campaign and five seasons, the last two of which saw the program go 26-40. The last-place finish in the Big Ten, combined with multiple off-the-court issues, led Howard, a Fab Five member for the Wolverines in the 90s, to be out.
In May, Michigan is getting one of the sport’s hottest coaching names, and someone who was getting courted by the likes of Louisville, Ohio State and others.
Sources also told FOX Sports that Louisville had May as its frontrunner in its head coaching search. With May now being off the board, the Cardinals have an interesting process still to come to get their man.
But as for Saturday night, it’s a win for Manuel and Michigan, who got a coach that took FAU – a program that had only made one NCAA Tournament appearance before he got there (2002) – to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments and a Final Four.
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on Twitter @John_Fanta.
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